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ABC News blasts negative Romney poll during Ann Romney speech

By Dylan Byers

08/28/12 10:30 PM EDT

TAMPA, Fla. -- ABC News blasted out a new ABC News/Washington Post poll tonight (published at 10 p.m., received via email at 10:17 p.m.) with the yellow-highlighted lead: "Mitt Romney accepts the Republican nomination for president this week with the lowest personal popularity of any major-party nominee in polls dating to Ronald Reagan’s presidency, a difficulty for Romney that’s persisted throughout this election cycle."

The timing of the release was concurrent with Ann Romney's speech at the Republican National Convention, a move that ensured reporters would see the poll, but -- like the bevy of opposition emails reporters are receiving from the Obama campaign tonight -- also seemed to compete for Ann Romney's moment on the national stage.

Romney’s favorability rating is the lowest of any major-party nominee at roughly the time of his convention in available data back to 1984; indeed he’s the first, at this stage of the campaign, to be rated more unfavorably than favorably by a significant margin. On the other hand, Obama’s net favorable rating is substantially lower than the four previous incumbents’ (Reagan, both Bushes and Bill Clinton) at this point.

Spokespeople at ABC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the timing of the release.

Since 8:40 p.m. ET, the Obama campaign has sent out seven "Fact Check" emails seeking to discredit tonight's Republican speakers.

UPDATE (10:40 p.m.): At 10:36 p.m., the DNC Rapid Response team blasted the email to reporters, with a note that began:

Key Point: But a new ABC News/Washington Post poll released this evening found that Romney has the lowest personal popularity of any major-party nominee in nearly 30 years.